883.00/1248
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray)
Mr. Murray: I am sorry to say that I cannot go along with this suggested telegram.10 It may be that Sir Miles Lampson has shown, as I have frequently been told, a complete lack of tact in his handling of the Egyptian situation. I do not feel, however, that our interest in the situation is sufficiently direct to warrant such direct intervention in the scene as that which you suggest. Egypt is so clearly within the British sphere of influence that the British Government very naturally would resent a démarche of this kind on our part.
I could not agree for one moment to similar interference on the part of the British in domestic affairs of one of the American republics, and I would suppose that the British would take that point of view if we attempted this sort of interference in the domestic affairs of Egypt.
Do you not also feel that, if the situation becomes more messy than it is and we would interfere in the way you suggest, the British would immediately claim that our interjection of ourselves into the picture was responsible for the situation?
- Supra.↩